Teams are already starting to do their leg work, and with college football heading into bowl season there’s no better time to do an NFL mock draft.

The order isn’t set in stone — this is just how things look heading into NFL Week 15. But for the most part we have a good idea about the teams that will have the top picks, and what they need to do with them.

If the season ended today, this 2018 NFL mock draft gives us an idea about what could happen when the actual thing takes place next year.

Note: Some of these players have yet to declare.

9. Cincinnati Bengals (5-8): Lamar Jackson, quarterback, Louisville

The Marvin Lewis/Andy Dalton era in Cincinnati has to be over. It just has to. The duo hasn’t done anything of consequence. Ever. It’s time for new blood. And there’s no better way to change the team’s outlook that bringing in a playmaker like Lamar Jackson. He’s not a running quarterback. He’s an amazing passer who can also run, better than many running backs. Team him up with Joe Mixon, A.J. Green and, yes, John Ross, and you’ll have something special.

Another day, another edition of ‘Marvin Lewis says the darndest things.’

This time, it’s a comment Lewis made during his Monday meeting with the media. The topic of discussion was the energy, or lack thereof, in the Bengals’ Sunday loss to the Chicago Bears.

While the Bengals were depleted on defense, that was no excuse to allow an equally-depleted Bears team to run through them at home, totaling more than 500 yards on offense and more than 30 points for the first time all year.
But don’t tell Lewis, the head coach, that it’s his job to keep his team motivated. When asked the Bengals missing the playoffs for the second year in a row, Lewis made one of the dumbest comments in his 15 years as head coach of the Bengals, and that’s saying something.

“Well, you don’t want this. I don’t think anybody does,” Lewis said. “These guys have a lot to play for, and it’s not my responsibility to get them — as I said — to turn up the music. (We’ve got to) figure out a way to get momentum going and put good football plays together. If we got young guys in there, they’re going to have to grow up in a hurry, because we are going to play three good football teams.”

Oh, but it gets better. Lewis then turned blamed toward the referees for a bad spot on the Bengals’ first drive, which required Lewis to go out of his way to throw a challenge flag. And while he won the challenge, that delay caused by a missed call killed the Bengals’ energy on that drive.
“It started with the first third down of the game, where I’ve got to challenge a play because we can’t even get it right from the officials (smiles). So I got to waste a challenge there — it kills what was a good play and now we got to go back.”
It really wasn’t a wasted challenge at all, since the Bengals won and the challenge positively impacted them.

A prominent theme with the Bengals (Marvin (HSH)) for the past several years has been excuse-making and blaming others. It’s someone else’s fault the Bengals choked away that 2016 Wild Card loss to Pittsburgh, and it’s someone else’s fault when Vontaze Burfict can’t control himself on the field, and it’s someone else’s fault when Adam Jones can’t control himself off of it. Why can’t the Bengals find motivation to perform, and why can’t they get over the playoff hump? Well, you’d think those things would be on the head coach, but it sounds like he feels differently.
After 15 years of excuses, this should be the last one Lewis is allowed to make.
]]>BengalsHigh School Harryhttp://footballpros.com/showthread.php/18531-Marvin-Not-My-ResponsibilityGo Broncos, Texans, Bears and Bucshttp://footballpros.com/showthread.php/18530-Go-Broncos-Texans-Bears-and-Bucs?goto=newpost
Tue, 12 Dec 2017 14:12:12 GMTCurrent Draft order
Cleveland (0-13) .529
New York Giants (2-11) .514
Indianapolis (3-10) .490
San Francisco (3-10) .519
Denver (4-9) .486...Current Draft order

The Cincinnati Bengals are in desperate need of healthy bodies to round out their 46-man active roster for Sunday against the Chicago Bears, and the club followed up its Wednesday move of placing rookie wide receiver John Ross on injured reserve by placing veteran cornerback Adam Jones on season-ending IR on Saturday.
The team signed corner Tony McRae to the active roster off the practice squad.

Jones injured his groin on Monday night when he made a diving interception of Ben Roethlisberger in the first quarter. He was quickly ruled out and had not practiced this week.
The 34-year-old corner had been playing with a transverse process fracture in his back, and he also dealt with a hip injury and played in nine of the team’s 12 games. He finished his 11th season in the NFL and eighth with the Bengals with 23 total tackles, four passes defensed and one interception.
Jones had only missed two games since 2012 heading into this season.

An All-Pro kick returner in 2014 and a Pro Bowl corner in 2015, Jones reached free agency after that season and re-signed with the Bengals for three years, $22.5 million. But 2018 is an option year for the Bengals, and Jones would count about $6.7 million against the cap.

With 2016 first-round pick William Jackson III ascending, Darqueze Dennard entering his fifth-year option season with a guaranteed contract number of over $8.5 million and Dre Kirkpatrick counting for $9.6 million against the cap, it’s fair to think the club will re-evaluate it’s spending at the position in the offseason.

Jones has said several times this year that he wants to play for a few more seasons.
]]>BengalsHigh School Harryhttp://footballpros.com/showthread.php/18528-Adam-Jones-to-IREvans vows never againhttp://footballpros.com/showthread.php/18527-Evans-vows-never-again?goto=newpost
Thu, 07 Dec 2017 14:59:11 GMT*Evans vows never again*
Posted 11 minutes ago
*Geoff HobsonEditorBengals.com
*
Image:...Evans vows never again

ESPN analyst Jon Gruden told the world Jordan Evans was not good on Monday night’s most bizarre play on a night of bizarre. Evans may be the
Bengals’ 22-year-old rookie linebacker in the process of playing the most NFL snaps of his life and trying to replace the team’s most productive
players, but even he knew where that one ranked.

“Y’all see it, but I feel it. It doesn’t look good or feel good,” Evans said before Wednesday’s practice.

Early second half. Steelers running back Le’Veon Bell continues his career-long torture of the Bengals when he turns another simple check-down
pass into unchecked chaos. After racing 10 yards with the ball in the open field, Evans and cornerback William Jackson close on him on the sideline
at about the Bengals 25. Jackson thinks Evans has pushed him out of bounds and let’s Bell slide past. But Evans doesn’t get enough of him and Bell
walks in untouched to cut the Bengals’ lead 17-10.

“Two rookie players,” said defensive coordinator Paul Guenther.

Jackson had picked up an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty earlier in the game on a punt on a hit out of bounds and told Guenther he was afraid of
getting another flag if he hit Bell out of bounds and got tossed out of the game because of second such penalty. The problem is Evans didn’t get him
out of bounds.

“When he got that step on me, I tried to push him,” Evans said. “I thought I pushed him enough. Obviously I didn’t. That’s not going to happen again.”

The Bengals love Evans. At 6-3, 240 pounds, he’s big, he can run, and he hits like they weren’t sure he could hit when they drafted him out of
Oklahoma in the sixth round. He played a career-high 66 snaps Monday and that’s going to be the norm the rest of the way. He replaced Nick Vigil,
their leading tackler, on Monday night and Vigil may be done for the year with an ankle injury and Vontaze Burfict, the other outside backer and
second-leading tackler, probably won’t go this Sunday because of a concussion.

But despite the play, Guenther liked what he saw. Bell ended up with 101 yards receiving, but 68 came on two plays marred by missed tackles or no
tackles. Holding the NFL’s leading rusher to 76 yards on 18 carries is good enough to win.

“Better. I have to get better,” Evans said.

On the Jackson-Evans play, Bell started it out with an exaggerated high step and Evans has filed that away. He knew Bell’s strong suit is his patience.
Now he’s lived it.

“I didn’t want to get kicked out and pushed outside,” Evans said. “You know what he’s capable of. I played over cautious and let him get a little edge
on me.”

Gruden told the world, but Evans already knew.

“I feel like I let the team down. I gave them a touchdown,” he said. “It motivates me to go harder and finish the play all the way through.”

PITTSBURGH -- With a healthy roster and the AFC playoffs in sight, the Pittsburgh Steelers want to keep Vontaze Burfict out of their backfield and off the backs of their star players.

You won't find a more villainous figure to the Steelers than the Cincinnati Bengals linebacker, who played a role in the 2015 injuries of Ben Roethlisberger, Antonio Brown and Le'Veon Bell. His legend continues to grow in Pittsburgh's locker room entering Monday night's game at Cincinnati.

But at least in the purest football form, the Steelers are very much worried about Burfict. Mostly, they fear his ability. Steelers players believe Burfict is so smooth as a linebacker that he can change the complexion of the game.

What comes after the play concerns the Steelers, too, but they know they can't protect their own players outside of blocking and tackling.

The only way to tame Burfict's mouth is to limit his splash plays.

"He's one of the best inside linebackers in the NFL," left tackle Alejandro Villanueva said. "The physical stuff, you can't avoid that because that's going to be his personal touch and what he does. ... That's probably the way he was taught to play the game. That's probably what somebody told him that's how to be successful and how he can distinguish himself. He's not the fastest or strongest linebacker out there, but he does have great instincts and he's very aggressive. It's fun. You really have to play your best game or he's going to make you look really stupid."

Preparing for Burfict isn't easy because of the dynamics of the Bengals' defense and Burfict's position.

Cincinnati's "double barrel" defense features two inside linebackers who camp outside of the A-gap. Each play, the Steelers don't know who will rush and who will drop back. And Burfict is known for his ability to disguise his intentions until the last second, similar to Bell's running style.

As a result, Burfict uses his football savvy to make at least a few plays of impact each week. Dealing with the aftermath of those plays can be the biggest challenge. Villanueva saw that firsthand last season on a Sammie Coates reverse play. Burfict went for Roethlisberger, who didn't have the ball. Tackling Roethlisberger was a legal play, but then Burfict began jawing with the quarterback, whom Villanueva says is a constant "gentleman" on the field and doesn't entertain the theatrics.

Villanueva said the move was fruitless.

"It's one of those uncalled-for things where it's like, 'What are you doing?'" Villanueva said. "You're such a gifted and talented player. If you didn't do that, Ben is going to give you props for being such a good player. He's going to respect you; you don't have to downgrade him or talk negatively."

There's usually a Burfict story from every Steelers game. In Week 7, Burfict refused to shake hands with Steelers players at the midfield coin toss, spouting obscenities while there were children in the huddle, as Roethlisberger recalled on his radio show in Week 8. A few plays into the game, Burfict attempted to kick fullback Roosevelt Nix's face mask. But Burfict wasn't a major factor in the game because the Bengals were reeling all game as the Steelers ran the ball 43 times.

Most Steelers agree setting the tone early is the best way to combat intimidating players.
What you need to know in the NFL

"There's an unwritten rule in the league [not to intentionally hurt] and you hope guys respect that," guard David DeCastro said. "It's tough at the same time. There's always kind of that fine line of trying to be smart, play physical, play to the whistle. We're worried about winning the game. We're not worried about penalties and questionable play. He's a heckuva player, smart, knows the game really well, instinctual. You don't worry about the extra stuff. You just worry about blocking him, keep him out of position."

One of the Steelers' biggest assets will see Burfict all evening. Bell thrives off a big workload, meaning he'll meet the Bengals linebackers head-on at least 15 times.

Bell, whose 2015 season ended in Week 8 on a Burfict sideline tackle that tore two ligaments in the star running back's knee, has learned over the years how to defend himself. Dishing out punishment instead of taking it is "part of the protection," said Bell, who also picks his spots with that process. He watches intently for players diving at his lower body or trying for a late hit on the sideline.

"You make sure to relax and not take any late so-called cheap shots," Bell said. "I just make sure I run the ball hard, get down on the ground and get up safe."

Especially for physical AFC North games, tight end Jesse James relies on the buzz phrase from coach Mike Tomlin that stresses composure over retaliation.

"Don't dip your toe in the water," James said.

http://www.espn.com/blog/pittsburgh-...r-the-steelers
]]>BengalsArkansas Bengalhttp://footballpros.com/showthread.php/18523-Surviving-Vontaze-Burfict-Bengals-LB-a-handful-for-Steelers-in-multiple-waysVontaze Burfict is not sorryhttp://footballpros.com/showthread.php/18522-Vontaze-Burfict-is-not-sorry?goto=newpost
Mon, 04 Dec 2017 13:11:25 GMTBengals linebacker Vontaze Burfict won't promise he'll ever be able to fully rein in his emotions when he's on the football field.

Phyllis B. Dooney for ESPN

7:00 AM CT

THE MOMENT HAS attained the status of football lore: Once upon a time, Vontaze Burfict almost beat the Pittsburgh Steelers by himself. He temporarily knocked Ben Roethlisberger out of the game on a third-quarter sack and picked off backup QB Landry Jones with the Bengals up 16-15 in the last two minutes of a 2016 AFC wild-card game.

Then Vontaze Burfict gave it all away.

With 22 seconds left, Burfict located Antonio Brown's crossing route and drifted into the middle of the field, ready to either make a play on the ball or separate Brown's body from it. Roethlisberger, back in the game with an injured right shoulder, threw the pass too high. Brown extended himself with both arms, but the ball glanced off his fingertips. Burfict was there to meet him as he landed. The two men had nearly passed each other when Burfict's shoulder pad clipped the side of Brown's head, sending the receiver down in a grotesque twirl, arms splayed and stiff like a marionette.

The resulting 15-yard, personal-foul penalty put the Steelers within range of a field goal that would win the game.

It's a neat metaphor: Burfict's violent brilliance giveth -- and taketh away. Almost too neat, not in the least because it gently elides the fact that Bengals running back Jeremy Hill had fumbled the ball back to Pittsburgh the play after Burfict's interception. Or that in the fracas that ensued after the hit on Antonio Brown, cornerback Adam "Pacman" Jones was penalized another 15 yards for unsportsmanlike conduct, turning a rangy field goal into a chip shot.

What the metaphor wants to explain is why Vontaze Burfict is a problem, in both the traditional and contemporary usage of the word; why the Cincinnati Bengals' 27-year-old star linebacker is regarded with both admiration and opprobrium -- if not outright fear -- around the NFL; why some call him a dirty player; why hate mail is sent in his name to Paul Brown Stadium; why his mentions on Twitter are full of abuse that is heinous even for that medium; and why, over the course of his six-year career, Burfict has been one of the most penalized, most suspended and most fined players in the NFL.

"HE FAKED THAT," Burfict says casually of the Brown hit before quickly trying to wave his own observation away. He knows instantly how the comment will be received, and it's easy to see he wishes he hadn't said it.

"And just the way he went down, it was just like -- I don't know man."
Bengals linebacker Vontaze Burfict, on his hit that injured Antonio Brown in a 2016 AFC wild-card game

We've settled in across from each other in a small, open sitting area with large windows and a person-sized model of the Eiffel Tower. Over in the living room, Burfict's oldest daughter, Aiyanna, is watching cartoons on mute while the babysitter combs her hair. Burfict's girlfriend since college, Brandie LaBomme, returns from running errands and brings the couple's younger daughter, Maliyah, downstairs after her nap. The family lives in Northern Kentucky, some 30 minutes outside of Cincinnati, at the end of a cul-de-sac in a quiet, McMansioned development. A small crew is at work installing Christmas lights on the front lawn. On a bright day, the houses in the neighborhood stand pristine in the afternoon sun, as if they are unlived-in.

Later, Burfict returns to his account of the Brown hit, reluctantly drawn into an explanation very few will agree with: "I feel like he looked at me. The ball tipped off his hands and he kind of put his head towards my area, and I tried to fade off of him at the last second, but he initially tried to make contact because he knew he could get the flag. And just the way he went down, it was just like -- I don't know man."
Burfict's hit on Steelers receiver Antonio Brown in a 2016 AFC wild-card game brought a three-game suspension. AP Photo/John Minchillo

This is merely one example of the way Burfict's view of his conduct diverges from how others view him.

Brown was not available at the Steelers' UPMC Rooney Sports Complex last week to respond to Burfict's version of events. But last December, Brown dismissed the idea that there was any bad blood between him and Burfict, telling ESPN's Jeremy Fowler, "I don't have no issue with any guy."

To encounter Burfict in person is to be quickly disabused of any idea that he's just some meathead with a mean streak. His intelligence is obvious, even if it doesn't necessarily manifest itself as eloquence. He has uncanny visual recall, and he's self-aware in a fashion that's common to young black men in America. That is, he knows how to watch himself being watched. Or rather, he's attuned to fact that the person he feels himself to be is not the person the world sees, and he's sensitive to that perception, no matter how much he presents a front of someone who doesn't care what others think.

He's currently in the midst of making a documentary about himself -- a crew is shooting him on a regular basis -- and he says he hopes to start writing a book about his career in the NFL and to make a second documentary about his life when he's finished playing football. "I do want people to know who I am," he admits.
Burfict, shown with daughter Maliyah, radiates no menace whatsoever in person. Rather, he is easygoing, quick to laugh and polite, almost formally so. Phyllis B. Dooney for ESPN

Those who know him -- teammates, friends and coaches -- are eager to emphasize that Burfict is a family man who has never had any "off-the-field issues." "He's nothing like what people say," says Brandon Magee, who played linebacker with Burfict at Centennial High School in Corona, California, and then again at Arizona State University. Magee describes Burfict as a brother and is worried enough about his friend's reputation that he calls back the day after he is interviewed to ensure there's not too much focus on Burfict's controversial style of play. "I just want to make sure we stay positive," he said. "People write a lot of things about him not knowing him."

It's true that Burfict's on-field persona -- domineering, explosive, mercurial -- does not appear to extend off the field. He radiates no menace whatsoever. Rather, he is easygoing, quick to laugh, a little shy yet playful, and polite, almost formally so.

But the problem is how he plays football -- with a violence that can be excessive.

"SOMETIMES IT'S LIKE driving a fast car without a seatbelt," Jones says of Burfict's playing style.

"He's the most instinctive linebacker probably in the league," says Burfict's position coach, Jim Haslett, himself a former NFL linebacker. "I think teams are nervous about him. When he hits people, they hurt. It's just the way the game used to be played. Maybe that's not the way people see it now, but he plays the way you want it to be played."

"I think teams are nervous about him. When he hits people, they hurt. It's just the way the game used to be played. Maybe that's not the way people see it now, but he plays the way you want it to be played."
Bengals linebackers coach Jim Haslett

For all the public support Burfict has been given by Haslett, Bengals defensive coordinator Paul Geunther and head coach Marvin Lewis, the three-year contract extension Burfict signed in September indicates the organization is hedging its bets. Since his rookie season in 2012, Burfict has been called for a league-high 15 unnecessary roughness penalties, suspended the most games due to on-field incidents (six, including three games for the Brown hit) and paid the most in fines for on-field incidents ($303,637). Including forfeited game checks for games missed due to suspension, Burfict has lost more than $2 million.

So although the $38.68 million deal makes Burfict one of the best-paid linebackers in the NFL, only his $3.3 million signing bonus is guaranteed. The rest depends on his ability to stay on the field, and the Bengals can release Burfict at any time.

Bill Romanowski, a four-time Super Bowl champion and notorious tough guy who has admitted to dirty play, speaks of the Bengals star with appreciation. "God, I like the way he flies around," he says.

Romanowski is something of a relict now, but he's the kind of player who helped cultivate the NFL's fearsome mystique, its highlight reel of vicious hits soundtracked by the grunts and thuds of colliding bodies, the familiar crack of helmet-to-helmet impact. He's not quite convinced the NFL wants to, or knows how to, leave behind its hyper-violent past or distance itself from players in the lineage he shares with Burfict.

"Fans love to turn on a game and watch who he's gonna hit next, who he's gonna lay out," Romanowski says of Burfict. "Watch him fly around, the intensity, the violence. The league loves that. They just cannot promote it and talk about how much they like it."

As a player, Romanowski says, "You know that the harder you hit people, the more violent you are, the more you are revered, the more you are respected and the more you're paid."

The problem is where that cold calculus can lead.

ASKED ABOUT THE 2014 incident in which he was fined $25,000 for twisting the ankles of Carolina Panthers Cam Newton and Greg Olsen in what Burfict describes as an "alligator roll," he is unrepentant: "I don't care if they came with a bum ankle. I mean, s---, I go into games with bum stuff, too. My ankle might be swollen, my wrist might be. I don't care. That's your fault if you want to play. And if you get tackled a certain way, that's your fault. ... If my shoulder hurts and the fullback comes constantly and hits my shoulder, am I like, 'Oh he's coming after my shoulder?' Nah."

There is an internal logic to football that leads to cruelty. On defense, one's job isn't merely to stop an offense, but to "do damage to an offensive player," as AJ McCarron, the Bengals' backup quarterback and one of Burfict's closest friends on the team, puts it. The goal is to make opponents hesitate next time, make them think, react more slowly, eventually to make them want to be somewhere else.

At its most exaggerated, that cruelty can become the New Orleans Saints' Bountygate, but really, it exists in nearly every moment of the game. It's a lineman's pancaking a defender away from the ball and near the end of a play. It's Aqib Talib's contemptuous snatching of Michael Crabtree's chain -- twice. It's Anthony Barr's driving Aaron Rodgers into the turf, not to injure him, but just to leave him a message -- to encourage him to maybe rush his throw next time.

"Hell yeah, it's a physical game," Burfict answers when asked if he behaves that way on the field. "I can't talk about it now because I'm still in it. I'd be telling on myself right now."

Aside from his $10,000 fine in 2013 for striking former Packers tight end Ryan Taylor in the groin (the mention of which is the only time Burfict shows visible embarrassment), there's no infraction Burfict doesn't explain away as an accident or part and parcel of the NFL's violence.

He genuinely feels singled out by the league. He claims refs ignore what's done or said to him on the field and intervene only when he retaliates, he feels they officiate his reputation and not his play, and he thinks the plays he's punished for happen all over the league. "There's a target on my back," he says.

Ask Burfict's teammates and coaches if he's singled out by the league and they'll agree -- before mentioning that he has brought some of this on himself because of his "history." Ask them about what they mean by his "history" and they demur.

The problem is that Burfict doesn't truly see the way he plays as a problem. The problem is that at least some people -- a segment of the fan base that takes the NFL's violence for granted and delights in it -- agree with him. The problem is that many more don't.
Burfict thinks the plays he's punished for happen all over the league: "There's a target on my back." Phyllis B. Dooney for ESPN

IN PITTSBURGH, FOR example, they hate him.

Burfict is preoccupied with his AFC North rivals. He says the recent animosity between the two teams dates to when former Steeler Terence Garvin broke punter Kevin Huber's jaw with a helmet-to-chinstrap block in 2013. The Bengals are 3-9 against the Steelers since Burfict's rookie season. He often brings up the rivalry unprompted or answers general questions by referring to his interactions with the Steelers.

In November 2015, Burfict dragged down Le'Veon Bell in a sideline tackle that resulted in season-ending knee injury for the running back. Steelers players accused Burfict of celebrating the injury. Burfict claims he didn't realize Bell was hurt until he had reached the middle of the field. "Everybody celebrates after they make a tackle," he says. "I've seen his [Bell's] teammates celebrate after they make a tackle and a guy's hurt."

Burfict took it as a literal threat, though Williams said he was just using harmless slang. "I thought the NFL should have stepped in," Burfict says. "The NFL didn't say nothing, so I'm like, 'I'm fittina defend myself.'"

He tweeted back at Williams: "why wait then u kno where I'm at."

After the Bengals and the Steelers played a few weeks later, Burfict was fined for three separate plays, including one in which he was accused of diving at Roethlisberger's legs. Burfict says he lost his balance after he was pushed.

Last fall, when the Bengals went to Pittsburgh, someone hung Burfict in effigy near Heinz Field, his orange jersey and stuffed, grey sweat pants dangling by the neck from a noose in broad daylight.

"I thought that was a little bit racist, excessive, away from football," he says.

The animosity continued this October in a 29-14 loss to Pittsburgh when Burfict was fined $12,154 for kicking out at fullback Roosevelt Nix's head. "He's constantly pushing me in the back. I rolled over and the play's over, whistle blows, and he pushes me again, and I went, 'Damn bro, get off me,'" he says. "My natural instinct was to defend myself. It just so happened his facemask was right there. And everybody was like, 'Oh, he kicked him in the facemask.' And I was like, 'Really?' Really, I pushed him off me. A kick and a push with the foot is different."

Before that game, Burfict refused to shake hands with the Steelers captains at the coin toss. "They took it there," he says. "They took it to the personal level."
Burfict stops to take a selfie with a young fan during a November game against Denver. Greg Trott via AP

THE LONGER ONE is around Burfict, the less one finds a disjuncture between how he plays and who he is. The gap between how he's seen and how he sees himself feels less like a paradox or even a surprise.

Maybe he's right. Maybe the hand-wringing over his play is merely the NFL's latest exhibit of a recurring moral panic, professional football's attempt to cleanse its bad conscience. A few years ago, the panic was about Ndamukong Suh; now it's about Burfict. Tomorrow, it will be about someone else.

That's the most sympathetic reading of Burfict's conduct, that he's locked into a game whose violence and emotional intensity will habitually push some players over the edge. A less sympathetic view is that, on the field, he's an unrepentant and deliberate brute who is always one moment away from an outrage that will hurt someone. He might be both of those things.

His teammates, coaches and confidants believe he can change and adapt to the "new" NFL. They insist that he has. He wants to believe that, too. But just push him a little, ask him if he'll ever be able to fully rein in his emotions and he'll admit, "Nah. That's always gonna be there. I can say it ain't gonna be there, but once it starts, and the competitiveness kicks in, it's turned on."

http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/2...nyone-else-nfl
]]>BengalsArkansas Bengalhttp://footballpros.com/showthread.php/18522-Vontaze-Burfict-is-not-sorry16 team playoff OThttp://footballpros.com/showthread.php/18521-16-team-playoff-OT?goto=newpost
Sun, 03 Dec 2017 18:15:16 GMTJust a little fun.
10 conferences get in so they have something to play for all year and it makes the year meaningful for half of FBS.
6 at...Just a little fun.

10 conferences get in so they have something to play for all year and it makes the year meaningful for half of FBS.
6 at large.

If Mike Tomlin has peered ahead to Pittsburgh's Week 15 showdown with New England, the same can't be said of his players.

Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger said Tuesday that he hasn't gazed at "one thing of Patriots film" this season, despite his coach telling NBC's Tony Dungy that Pittsburgh and New England were headed for "fireworks" in the regular season before likely meeting again in the playoffs.

"Honestly, he's the head coach," Roethlisberger said during his weekly radio show, per ESPN's Jeremy Fowler. "He's allowed to think about whatever game or whatever elephant in the room or whatever matchups, things like that.

"For me, I am 100 percent on Cincinnati and nothing else. That is my biggest focus because these guys are going to come out to get us. They want to ruin our playoff chances. I know those guys are going to want to get after us and try to ruin our Christmas."

Roethlisberger is wise to keep his eyes on the here and now. The Steelers face the Bengals on Monday night before a critical showdown with the Ravens in Week 14. Drop either affair and Pittsburgh (9-2) is likely to enter that Week 15 showdown with the Patriots sitting a game behind their AFC big brother.

Why? Because smart money says New England (9-2) isn't about to stumble against Buffalo and Miami over the next two weeks before facing the Steelers, who they've dismissed seven straight times without much thought.

CB Joe Haden is ruled out for Steelers/Bengals, but WR JuJu Smith-Schuster and TE Vance McDonald have a chance to play.
]]>BengalsBengals1181http://footballpros.com/showthread.php/18518-Week-13-Steelers-News-From-The-Other-Side-Of-The-Aisle